"An' why would I even fuckin' remotely care about her?"
"Wh-What does 'remotely' mean..?"
Kasoria put down his shovel and sighed. Warren could be a bloody annoyance, he really could. Boy never shut up about his girl, his true love, who he'd... well, he'd not quite asked her out yet, but he was building to it! Her father was the problem, you see, and if he just proved himself, showed he had some mettle, some gumption, some blah-blah-blah, one got the idea. Sod had attached himself to Kasoria like a barnacle, too, ever since the last training class the Raggedy Man had led. Which spoke to some well-hidden survival instincts, but this...
"Never mind. But the question stands, dunnit?"
"Well... she may not hear from me again," Warren shrugged his skinny shoulders and dared to stop shoveling for a few bits. Around them both, the work continued, a trench around the outer walls. For spikes, for flaming pitch, or just for another stumbling point those things could be caught unawares by. Any advantage the defenders could wring, they would. "Having, you know, some... keepsake of mine-"
"Y'mean a letter? Like summin' she could pul out an' coo over when yeh've been fuckin' eaten an' she's shaggin' someone else?"
"Don't talk to her like that!"
Little sod almost grabbed his shovel when he said that, too. If the girl's father (fuck, he couldn't remember her name) could hear that tone of voice, that conviction, Kasoria thought he'd change his mind about Warren. The Etzori's eyebrows crept to the top of his head and he cocked it to one side, satirical question in them. Warren gulped and looked away. Ah. There was the problem. He could find it, but he couldn't keep a hold of it.
"S... Sorry, sir-"
"First off, I ain't a fuckin' sir. Second... shite, a'right, I'll write yer letter."
"Sir, thank you! I mean, Mis-"
"Where's yer coin?"
"My... what?"
"Dint say I'd do it fer fr-"
There was no sound quite like it. Kasoria had heard mines collapsing and buildings fall over and mountains slide down across roads and sweep caravans away like toys from a table, but nothing like the cracking, wrenching, shattering sound of that thing going through the gate. Chunks of foot-thick wood the size of his torso went flying as something vast, fast, and horned came barreling through it. As it charged its head shook and horns long as pikes skewered and battered and sizzled as blood splattered on them. Acting on instinct, Kasoria grabbed Warren and yanked him down-
-to the bottom of the trench alongside him. The Breacher leaped over them and Kasoria smelled piss. Fortunately, it wasn't his.
"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-"
"Fucked if I know, boy," Kasoria grumbled, having learned long ago not to question when shite like this started happening. Instead he stood up and drew his sword. "Go get the Knights. Go, boy!"
Warren set off like a rabbit and Kasoria figured his howled calls of alarm wouldn't be necessary. There was enough noise and chaos made to alert the whole garrison. But it took one idiot off the board and out of his way, which was always a plus. The Raggedy Man started jogging towards where the Breacher was slamming its head from side to side, demolishing a building like a child petulantly destroying a sand castle. There was a flash of flaming red at his side and even at this distance Kasoria could see it wasn't actual fire.
This fucking bitch again.
Then he frowned deeper, and with more than just personal disdain. The sword the woman carried, it bounced straight off the skin of the monster. She swung, and she connected, but there was no blood, no damage, no change in speed or direction. Kasoria swore softly and gripped Shadow Slayer tighter. Well... this particular blade had a cure for enemies like that. But he'd need to get close... and he'd rather see if there was any other way to bring the big horned sod down, rather than jump straight into enchantments he barely understood.
Good to have it just in case, though.
The Breacher was busy battering its head against a patch of wall, and even Kasoria could see if surely could. But already there was a spatter of arrow fire homing in on it; soon it would become a deluge. The Knights had drilled the archers well, and yet... Kasoria couldn't see many of the arrows sticking. Finally one seemed to strike home or at least annoy it, and the beast shook its head in anger-
-and turned its burning eyes straight onto him.
"Shite."
With a snort of flame instead of steam, the Breacher wheeled around and charged him. Kasoria swallowed as his whole view of the monster became flames and horns and hooves. Nothing else, nothing he could hurt. Swords wouldn't do it, arrows wouldn't... so what else did he have?
Kasoria resisted the urge to groan inwardly and just accepted it.
I hate this plan.
"C'mon, then," he murmured as he called his Spark into his hands, making them glow with etheral power. "Come an' get me, yeh ugly sod..."
Knights and civilians rushing to help were already screaming for the crazy man to move, just move! But he didn't. He was just standing there, letting the monster run him down. Staring it down with his jaw clenched tight, fighting every animal urge to flee, to dodge, to escape! But he had to stay put; he had to lure it in. So instead he spread his arms and let it see him do so. Until he could feel the air crackling and choking him with the sheer pressure of ether infused within it. So that when the snorting Breacher brayed from a dozen feet away-
-he could snap his arms forward-
-magical energy exploding forward to meet the lowered horns of the Breacher as a dome of shimmering light-
BOOM
Kasoria swore he felt that in the marrow of his fucking bones. Backlash or not, something that huge traveling that fast with that hard of a head... it was going to bloody well hurt when it smashed into a Shield. His Spark practically wailed through his bones when the cast was exploded into a million glimmering shards by the Breacher's horns-
-one of which had been broken almost in half. The monster was wailing and staggering as if drunk, first tottering forwards, then back, then to the side, shaking its head over and over. Blood that looked like it was pitch and burning moonshine was pouring from its face but it was still on its feet. Its neck, his shoulders seemed to be a mess. Kasoria remembered seeing rams bucking each other in a field once; hearing the cracking of skulls against each other, echoing over the fields. All it took was a good, solid blow in the right spot, and the contest was over. He wondered if the Breacher had ever had something equally as large, equally as fast, run into it headlong like that.
Thanks to Backlash, now it had some idea. But so did Kasoria.
"F... Fuck me..."
The Raggedy Man was slow picking himself up, but by that time, the redhead who's name he kept forgetting was back into the fray. Giving the mage time to stagger back to his feet and wonder when he'd be able to feel anything in his hands again. Nothing broken, by the feel of it, but his Spark was hurt and of course, when the Spark suffered, the body suffered right alongside it. He felt a hand on his shoulder and shook it away out of instinct. Spat blood onto the ground before him and never took his eyes off the two of them, monster and maiden, going to war with each other again.
Kasoria picked up his sword and coughed, wiping a red smear on the sleeve of his tunic.
"Aye, well... f'you can bleed, wanker, y'can die. Jus' gotta find a way."